The ugliest Fender Strat made in 2018

Good guitar. Bad color.

The Deluxe Strat is a modern offering from Fender with three "vintage noiseless" pickups, push/push mini switch to add in the bridge pickup for positions 4 and 5, modern two-point bridge, 12" radius fingerboard, contoured neck heel and locking tuners.

This is a good guitar. But it looks horrible in Sapphire Blue Transparent.

Now to note, this guitar is available in three other finishes, 2-color sunburst, black and vintage blonde. And any one of those is better than the blue.

The reason why the blue doesn't work on this Strat is because it makes it look cheap.

Transparent blue is a color you expect to see on something like this low-cost Ibanez... or even cheaper with a sub-$100 no-name guitar. You don't expect to see it on a Deluxe Model Strat that costs significantly more, but yet it exists.

However, there is a bright side. This is one of the very few guitars in Fender's current lineup that looks like it got hit with the ugly stick. As said above, there are 3 other colors that look notably better for the same model.

My personal pick for the best looking Deluxe Strat is the 2-color sunburst. That one has a look done right.

Published 2018 Oct 31